Stellar Blade team Shift Up has gifted all of its employees a PS5 Pro and a cash bonus of five million South Korean won (~$3,400). The rewards were shared with workers during a company event earlier today, with a spokesperson explaining to Naver the bonuses are for the purpose "of encouraging talent".
Since its PS5 release last year, Stellar Blade is said to have sold more than one million copies, and a PC version is also on the way. More recently, a paid NieR: Automata DLC had fans returning to the title for new Outfits and Collectibles. It is said 311 people currently work at Shift Up, as of the third quarter of 2024.
This isn't the first time the developer has made such a gesture. When a trailer featured in a PlayStation Showcase was debuted when the game was still known as Project EVE, the CEO Hyung-Tae Kim gifted all his employees a base PS5.
In our Stellar Blade PS5 review, we awarded the game an 8/10 and concluded: "With an ever-evolving counter-attacking combat system, some superb art direction, and a sensational soundtrack, this is the kind of back-to-basics PS5 outing that fans have been pleading for." Stellar Blade came fourth in our overall Game of the Year top 10 list, having picked up many fans in the months since launch.
[source n.news.naver.com]
Comments 30
Last sentence of the second paragraph, you...uh...misspelt the name of the developer...
Good job Shift Up! Great to see employees get rewarded for her hard work! Also, wow! I thought my native Jamaica had a poor exchange rate of 156/1. Yikes!
@springer17 LMAO.
It's always nice to be recognised for your work by your employers. Doesn't happen anywhere near often enough, quite the opposite sadly. I'd have been happy with the money but to get Pro too is fantastic.
@springer17 LMAO! So perfect!
@springer17 Thank you for pointing that out 😂
Damn I missed what you all were talking about. 😤
@LiamCroft No worries.
Respect to Shift Up, nice to see a news article about developers that doesn't involve them letting people go.
@springer17 that comes later 😅
Good for Shift Up. Well deserved reward.
They really do deserve it since Stellar Blade is an amazing game. Although it didn't win anything at TGA last month, I had a good time with it overall. Didn't have too many issues with the game.
Great stuff, Shift Up!
This is what happens when you make a game people want to play. The gamers benefit. The studio benefits. The developers benefit.
Meanwhile other studios are misreading the room, making games not enough people want to play, costing too much to make, and the the developers lose their jobs.
I love moments like this, consider me jelly.☺️
You won't see Bioware doing something like this...
Well deserved!!!
Damn they got ps5s and ps5 pros that's dope also the $3400 ain't bad either
Totally worth it. Stellar Blade was substantially better than I expected. I went into it with doubts, then it completely captivated me until I obtained that shiny platinum (perfect trophy list too btw, no garbage criteria like in so many other games). Absolutely brilliant from start to finish; by rights it should have won Best Action Game at the Geoffs instead of Black Mid Wukong.
@Oram77
Possibly not, but its a shame - Biowares devs could really have done with a decent 'pat on the back' after releasing such a good game, only for a loud minority to start some silly hate crusade against it.
Nice to see devs being rewarded for a game selling well. They deserve it for their hard work and passion.
They made something special. This game had me feeling I was playing Automata again for the first time.
They definitely deserve it.
You love to see it.
I wonder if they managed to get a disc drive for there new ps5 pro consoles.
Good for them and well deserved. Shift Up immediately shifted up to one of my favorite devs.
See what I did there!? Yeah? Okay I'll take my leave now. 😄
Fantastic gesture by Shift Up they all earned it! can't wait to see what they make next.
Pfft! And to think Push Square didn't have 'em in the top 3 devs of 2024?!? (unless I'm totally misremembering, because med's...). I knew about the base PS5 gifting so this isn't jaw dropping news, but I think it's one of those things that made me sit up and pay more attention to 'Project Eve', they then put out some excellent trailers and I was on the hook. Have since blasted through it 7 times, each one as much fun as the last. When they announce SB2 I'll be first in the queue for a pre-order.
To anyone who hasn't played this game because "cEnSoRsHiP... Wah Wah Waaaahh!", you're the ones that're missing out, the game is an absolute blast.
Would’ve been cool if they made special Pro plates just for the employees. All the PS Studios should do that, a controller or both as a bonus tbh. But I assume that’d get pricey eventually. Any extra perks to retain/keep talent happy is cool to me though
Totally deserved. I had a ton of fun with Stellar Blade. Shift Up is on my dev radar now.
Kudos to the generous CEO.
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